Nick Cannon is adding another hosting gig to his schedule.
The Masked Singer host is teaming with Lionsgate’s Debmar-Mercury to front his own syndicated daytime talk show in 2020. Cannon will co-produce the series via his production company, Ncredible Entertainment. Details on the name of the show and a specific launch date — as well as plans surrounding a format — have not yet been determined.
The new venture arrives after Cannon filled in as the host of Wendy Williams’ Debmar-Mercury-produced talk show while she took an extended hiatus to focus on her heath after revealing her Graves’ disease diagnosis.
“After leaving America’s Got Talent, I wanted to focus on developing my own talk show,” Cannon said. “I’ve always dreamed of a platform where I can speak to America and discuss pop culture, as well as the topics on everyone’s minds. When I had the opportunity to guest host at my good friend Wendy Williams’ show this year, I experienced the energy and excitement of a daytime talk show and instantly knew I found my audience.”
Cannon has had a long career in entertainment, working as a host, comedian, actor, producer, rapper, writer, director, DJ, children’s book author and more. He currently hosts Fox’s competition series The Masked Singer, which broke out earlier this year and has already been renewed for two additional seasons. (Season 2 debuts Wednesday.) He also created, produced and hosted MTV sketch show Wild ‘N Out, which has been renewed through its 16th season. He returns to the road with a second 30-city arena tour to support the show in March 2020. He previously hosted Fox’s Teen Choice Awards, Nickelodeon’s Lip Sync Battle: Shorties and Halo Awards, the latter of which he also created and exec produced. This past summer, he took over as the drive time radio host of Power 106’s “Nick Cannon Mornings.”
“We are excited to be able to announce this collaboration with Nick, who has proven himself to be such a dominant creative and entrepreneurial force across film, primetime TV, music, comedy, stage and online platforms,” said Debmar-Mercury co-presidents Mort Marcus and Ira Bernstein. “The daytime audience got to see that firsthand earlier this year with his stellar performance guest hosting The Wendy Williams Show. Now we can’t wait to see Nick put his own unique stamp on talk and add daytime to his impressive list of accomplishments.”
Cannon becomes the latest new face of daytime syndication. This season has featured a number of new arrivals, including talk shows hosted by Kelly Clarkson, Tamron Hall and Mel Robbins as well as courtroom shows with the likes of Jerry Springer, among others.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
‘Bob ♥ Abishola’ Co-Creator Gina Yashere Promoted To Series Regular On New CBS Comedy
Gina Yashere is getting a second full-time job on the new CBS comedy series Bob ♥ Abishola.
Yashere, who co-created the series with Chuck Lorre, Al Higgins and Eddie Gorodetsky, serves as a writer and producer on the show. She also had a scene-stealing guest-starring turn in the pilot as Kemi, Abishola’s (Folake Olowofoyeku) best friend. As a result, she has been promoted to a series regular on the show. She also will continue as a writer-producer.
Yashere joins an elite group of female writer-performers who star/co-star in the show they have created/co-created. It includes Girls‘ Lena Dunham, Fleabag’s Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Catastrophe‘s Sharon Horgan.
This marks the second promotion on the show for Yashere. The British comedian, daughter on Nigerian immigrants, was initially brought in by Lorre, Higgins and Gorodetsky as a consultant for the development of Bob ♥ Abishola but quickly impressed them and ended up co-creating the series with the sitcom veterans.
Being a co-creator did not hand Yashere the role of Kemi, which she wanted to play. Yashere had to audition for it. She landed the part, and her scenes on the bus with Olowofoyeku became a highlight of the pilot. (you can see some of them in the official Bon♥ Abishola trailer below, toward the end.)
Bob ♥ Abishola premieres 9/23 at 8:30 PM on CBS.
Source: Deadline
Whoopi Goldberg Reveals Her Transformation For Stephen King’s ‘The Stand’
Whoopi Goldberg debuted a brand new hair color during Wednesday’s taping of The View. Her usual dark dreadlocks were white, a color she’ll have “for the next four months,” she said to the audience. The change comes as she takes on the role of prophet Mother Abigail in the TV miniseries adaptation of Stephen King’s book The Stand.
“The woman I’m playing is over 100 [years old],” she said. “When [King] first wrote this book, Mother Abigail was probably this tall [signifying short], and she looked like Miss Jane Pittman on steroids,” she continued. “And the reason for that was people had no idea what older Black women looked like because no one ever looked at old Black women like that. So now we look at an older Black woman and you’re looking at amazing faces.”
Mother Abigail represents the good side of a world that has descended into chaos after an escaped patient infected with a mutated superflu strain has led to 99 percent of the world’s population dying. She also fights against a man named Randall Flagg, played by Alexander Skarsgård.
As the official description states:
“The Stand is Stephen King’s apocalyptic vision of a world decimated by plague and embroiled in an elemental struggle between good and evil. The fate of mankind rests on the frail shoulders of the 108-year-old other Mother Abagail (Goldberg) and a handful of survivors. Their worst nightmares are embodied in a man with a lethal smile and unspeakable powers: Randall Flagg, the Dark Man.”
The cast also includes When They See Us star Jovan Adepo, Daniel Sunjata, Amber Heard, James Marsden, Henry Zaga, Odessa Young, Brad William Henke and Owen Teague. The miniseries will feature a new ending written by King.
The series will debut in 2020 on CBS All Access.
Source: Shadow & Act
‘The Boondocks’ To Get A Reboot On HBO Max For 2 Season Order
HBO Max has given a two-season, 24-episode order to a reimagining of the animated series The Boondocks, from creator Aaron McGruder and Sony Pictures Animation. The new Boondocks will launch in fall 2020 with a 50-minute special. All 55 episodes of the original The Boondocks series will also be available on WarnerMedia direct-to-consumer platform at launch.
The Boondocks revival was taken out to the marketplace in late spring and was confirmed by Sony Pictures Animation at the Annecy festival in June. HBO Max immediately emerged as the most likely home for the new series because of WarnerMedia’s history with the franchise. The original Boondocks animated series, based on the comic strip created by McGruder, aired on the company’s Adult Swim, a large part of whose programming will be available on HBO Max. The series earned McGruder a Peabody Award.
“The Boondocks was a revolutionary series that sparked conversations on hot button issues and brought dark subjects into the light with episodes like ‘The Trial of Robert Kelly’, ‘The Fundraiser’ and ‘The Story of Gangstalicious’,” said Kevin Reilly, Chief Content Officer, HBO Max and President, TBS, TNT and truTV. “Aaron is a gifted visionary whose unique style of storytelling is a welcome voice and we are elated The Freemans are making their thugnificent comeback on HBO Max.”
The new Boondocks follows the adventures of self-proclaimed “Civil Rights Legend” Robert “Granddad” Freeman, and his two rambunctious grandsons Huey and Riley. The family has recently moved to an idyllic community in suburban Maryland only to see it taken over by the tyrannical Uncle Ruckus and his bizarre neo-fascist regime. Life under Ruckus turns out to be an everyday struggle to survive.
“There’s a unique opportunity to revisit the world of The Boondocks and do it over again for today,” said McGruder, “It’s crazy how different the times we live in are now – both politically and culturally – more than a decade past the original series and two decades past the original newspaper comic. There’s a lot to say and it should be fun.”
McGruder returns as showrunner and will serve as executive producer along with Norm Aladjem for Mainstay Entertainment as well as Seung Kim and Meghann Collins Robertson. Sony Pictures Animation will produce the series in partnership with Sony Pictures Television.
On HBO Max’s original programming slate, The Boondocks joins another upcoming series with IP pedigree, Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai, a prequel to the Gremlins movies.
Sony TV has been very active in mining its library for revivals/reboots. It has One Day at a Time on Pop (formerly on Netflix), the Live In Front of a Studio Audience franchise at ABC based on Norman Lear titles, and the upcoming Mad About You limited series revival on Spectrum Originals, among others.
Source: Deadline
‘House Party’ Remake In The Works At New Line Cinemas
After winning an MTV Video Music Award for bringing his vision and humor to the video for Lil Nas X’s remix of “Old Town Road” with Billy Ray Cyrus, director Calmatic is looking to celebrate with a party…a House Party to be specific. The music video director will make his feature directorial debut with the forthcoming reimagining of the comedy classic House Party at New Line Cinema.
The remake from SpringHill Entertainment will be cut from the same cloth as the original 1990 comedy directed by Reginald Hudlin and starring Christopher “Kid” Reid and Christopher “Play” Martin of the rap duo Kid ‘N Play (it was also a dance shown in the pic). The movie, which told the story of a house party to end all house parties, was drenched in ’90s hip hop flair and featured Martin Lawrence and Tisha Campbell-Martin before they went on to star in the hit Fox TV series Martin.
The movie became a huge success and spawned two sequels: House Party 2 in 1991 and a third installment in 1994. The movie continued to party on with a direct-to-video sequels House Party 4: Down to the Last Minute in 2001, which did not include any of the original cast. The fifth installment House Party: Tonight’s the Night was released in 2012 and saw the return of Kid ‘N Play to the franchise.
Calmatic will direct the script written by Emmy-nominated Atlanta duo Stephen Glover and Jamal Olori. LeBron James and Maverick Carter of SpringHill will produce.
In addition to directing the wildly cinematic video to Lil Nas X’s viral record-breaking country-rap hybrid hit, Calmatic also helmed Anderson Paak’s “Bubblin’” and has worked with some of the most notable names in music including Kendrick Lamar, Khalid and Lizzo.
Spencer Beighley and Jamal Henderson are overseeing the House Party remake for SpringHill. Calmatic is repped by WME, LBI Entertainment and Ryan Goodell at Morris Yorn.
Source: Deadline
Issa Rae Remaking ‘Set It Off’ For New Line Cinemas
Syreeta Singleton (‘Black Monday’) and Nina Gloster (‘Star’) have been hired to pen the script.
Issa Rae, the co-creator of HBO’s Insecure, is tackling a re-imagining of Set It Off, New Line’s crime thriller that starred Jada Pinkett Smith and Queen Latifah.
Rae will produce the new project with an eye to star. Producing with her will be Montrel McKay, her partner at Issa Rae Productions.
Syreeta Singleton (Black Monday) and Nina Gloster (Star) have been hired to pen the script.
The original movie told of four friends, fed up with by low-wage jobs and broken by institutional violence, desperately band to together for a series of bank robberies. After initial success, the spree ultimately leads to quartet to mostly tragic ends.
The movie, which also starred Vivica A. Fox and Kimberly Elise, proved to a be surprise hit while also garnering rave reviews. The movie was the rare action thriller that featured not only female leads but women of color, and also took on work issues, something that resonated with audiences. It also helped trampoline several of the talent to another level, including director F. Gary Gray, whose previous movie was the comedy Friday.
Rae co-created of the HBO comedy Insecure, in which she acted as writer, executive producer and actress. Earlier this year, she starred in Little, Universal’s comedy with Regina Hall and Marsai Martin.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
Lil Rel Howery To Guest Star On Showtime’s ‘The Chi’
Two-time Grammy® nominee Luke James (Star, Little), La La Anthony (Power) and Lil Rel Howery (Get Out, Bird Box) have signed on to guest star in multiple episodes of the third season of the SHOWTIME drama series THE CHI. In addition, writer Justin Hillian (Snowfall) has been named showrunner and executive producer this season. Birgundi Baker (Empire, Chicago Med), who plays Kiesha, has been upped to a series regular. THE CHI is currently in production in Chicago and will return to the network in 2020.
Luke James will play Victor “Trig” Taylor, Jake’s (Michael V. Epps) estranged older brother who wants to reunite his fractured family, but takes an unconventional approach. La La Anthony will play Dominique “Dom” Morris, a savvy businesswoman with dreams of more lucrative opportunities. Lil Rel Howery will play Zeke Remnick, the owner of Sonny’s building who cares less about the community than the bottom line.
Created and executive produced by Emmy® winner Lena Waithe and executive produced by Academy Award®, Emmy and Golden Globe® winner Common (Selma), THE CHI is a timely coming-of-age story centering on a group of residents who become linked by coincidence but bonded by the need for connection and redemption. Season three cast includes Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine (Queen of Katwe), Jacob Latimore (Sleight), Alex Hibbert (Moonlight), Yolonda Ross (Treme), Shamon Brown Jr., Epps and Baker.
In addition to Waithe and Common, Aaron Kaplan (A Million Little Things, The Neighborhood), Rick Famuyiwa (Dope), Derek Dudley and Shelby Stone of Freedom Road Productions, Jet Wilkinson and Justin Hillian serve as executive producers. Produced entirely in its namesake city, THE CHI is produced by Fox 21 Television Studios. To learn more about THE CHI, visit SHO.com and follow on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Join the conversation using #TheChi.
Kevin Hart Being Sued For $60 Million Dollars By Woman Featured In Sex Tape
Kevin Hart is reportedly being sued by Montia Sabbag, the woman he was featured with in a sex tape made back in 2017. According to reports, she’s suing for $60 million for intentional infliction of emotional distress and invasion of privacy.
In the suit, Montia claims the 40-year-old comedian conspired with his friend (JT Jackson) to secretly record their encounter.
In 2017, Kevin made headlines when he cheated on his then-pregnant wife Eniko Hart.
Kevin and Montia were said to have hooked up in a Las Vegas hotel room and the incident was filmed allegedly by JT, who was later charged with 2 counts of extortion relating to alleged efforts to get money out of Hart to keep the tape under wraps.
JT denied ever extorting the comedian.
In Montia’s suit, she claims that the incident was planned by Kevin and JT, claiming that Kevin needed publicity and that’s why he and JT allegedly hid the camera.
She claims Kevin allowed his friend into the Cosmopolitan Hotel suite so he could set up hidden video recording devices to capture them in action.
Kevin has repeatedly denied having any knowledge of the recording. He also apologized for his infidelity.
Kevin is currently recovering from a serious car accident.
Source: thejasminebrand
Shane Gillis Out At ‘Saturday Night Live’ Following Racial, Homophobic Slurs
Comedian Shane Gillis won’t be part of Saturday Night Live after coming under fire for using racial and homophobic slurs during a conversation on a podcast.
“After talking with Shane Gillis, we have decided that he will not be joining SNL,” said a show spokesperson on behalf of executive producer Lorne Michaels. “We want SNL to have a variety of voices and points of view within the show, and we hired Shane on the strength of his talent as comedian and his impressive audition for SNL. We were not aware of his prior remarks that have surfaced over the past few days. The language he used is offensive, hurtful and unacceptable. We are sorry that we did not see these clips earlier, and that our vetting process was not up to our standard.”
Gillis, one of three new SNL castmembers announced Thursday, can be heard using a racial slur in a since-deleted video from 2018 on a YouTube channel called “Matt and Shane’s Secret Podcast.”
“Chinatown’s fucking nuts,” Gillis says in a segment of the video dated on Sept. 26, 2018. “Let the fucking ch—s live there.” The video also shows Gillis mimicking a Chinese accent and mocking Chinese restaurants.
Additional audio from a separate 2018 episode of “Matt and Shane’s Secret Podcast” shows Gillis and co-host Matt McCusker ranking how funny comedians are by race and using homophobic slurs. While referencing comedians like Judd Apatow, Gillis calls them “white faggot comics” and “fucking gayer than ISIS.”
Gillis took to his Twitter account to issue a statement, tweeting “I’m a comedian who pushes boundaries. I sometimes miss. If you go through my 10 years of comedy, most of it bad, you’re going to find a lot of bad misses. I’m happy to apologize to anyone who’s actually offended by anything I’ve said. My intention is never to hurt anyone but I am trying to be the best comedian I can be and sometimes that requires risks.”
Gillis is the latest comedian to deal with backlash over past offensive comments. Trevor Noah was criticized ahead of replacing Jon Stewart on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show over old tweets, including ones deemed antisemitic or offensive towards aboriginal women. Kevin Hart gave up his Oscars hosting gig this year when homophobic tweets of his resurfaced.
SNL returns Sept. 28 for its 45th season with host Woody Harrelson and musical guest Billie Eilish.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
Tracee Ellis Ross Reunites With ‘Girlfriends’ On ‘black-ish’
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Fans waiting for a “Girlfriends” reboot are getting a little tease: the cast of the early 2000s sitcom is reuniting on an episode of “black-ish.”
Tracee Ellis Ross, one of the leading actors on “black-ish,” was also the star of “Girlfriends,” which ran from 2000 to 2008 and chronicled the lives of four black women living in Los Angeles.
Ross teased the reunion on social media, posting a video of herself on the “black-ish” set with Golden Brooks, Persia White and Jill Marie Jones, as she squealed with delight. “Girlfriends” had a strong and loyal fan base, and some have lobbied it to return in some form — perhaps a movie.
